Senators

Challenging and tiring.

Tonight's game against the Senators at the Bell Centre is the first of four in six nights – none of them a gimme.

The Senators have sucked since the Olympic break, but the Canadiens are 1-4 against Ottawa this season. This is a bona-fide four-pointer: the teams are divisional rivals, tied in points with 79 after 72 games.

Then it's a visit to Buffalo on Wednesday night, followed by Florida at the Bell Centre on Thursday.

The Saturday special? Martin F. at the Bell Centre.

Again, not an easy sked. But three of four are at home, with a chance to further nail down a playoff spot ... and maybe move up on the Senators and Philadelphia Flyers.

(Overtaking Buffalo is still posible, but not real likely.)

Tonight is key for geting the week off on the right skate, especially after a sub-par (now that post-Olympic par is a W) performance at the wretched ACC.

Puck drops 7:35ish. Check back later for live game blogging.

That Mike Cammalleri injury looked brutal.

As did Andrei Markov's defence in OT.

Mike Fisher shifted into overdrive and cashed a backhand that ended a pretty good hockey game.

Standing otside the losers' dressing room, Brian Wilde of CTV put the night in perspective:

"Doesn't it say it all that the Fan of the Game was crying his eyes out?"

During the third period, roving cameras capture fans at the Bell Centre. Each is flashed on the huge scoreboard, and the Fan of the Game is the one who gets the most applause.

It's usually a babe or someone wearing an interesting costume or a particularly enthusiastic and athletic dancer.

Last night it was an infant, held aloft by his parents and crying his eyes out. 

Hey, it's NHL parity – and he'll cry if he wants to.

That's not the Bell Centre baby in the picture, but close enough.

There was plenty to cry about, starting with the Canadiens failure to win a four-point game.

Ls happen.

It's cause for tears, however, when the eighth-place Eastern Conference team loses to the team that's in seventh – and looks like a 12th-place team for most of the night.

No use crying over spilled milk, of course, and the Canadiens are checking into their Manhattan hotel as you read this. 

Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden, the ninth-place Canadiens play the seventh-place Rangers.

Wonder if the "excellent" goaltender will get the start.

Canadiens drop a bona-fide four-pointer.

Outhustled.

Outworked.

And definitely outgoalied.

Now the Canadiens know how the Islanders, Thrashers, Hurricanes and Leafs felt.

The game should habve been over in the first period.

The Canadiens grabbed a 2-0 lead and peppered Pascal Leclaire with quality shots.

It could have been 5-0.

But it wasn't.

And Leclaire kept the Senators in it long enough to come back, seize momentum, win puck battles and bag a W.

Ottawa fights back from 2-0, gets great goaltending from Pascal Leclaire and wins 4-2.

Senators take NO PENALTIES!

Marc André Bergeron will earn $750,000 this season. He has seven goals.

Alex Kovalev makes $5 million. He has four.

The Canadiens had three power plays against the Senators. They scored twice. 

MAB had a PP goal and an assist on AK46's. He played 2:37 on the PP – and 2:27 shorthanded!

Kovalev played 3:19 on the PP. He didn't score – and neither did any of his teammates during Ottawa's SEVEN man advantages.

After the win over Philadelphia, Jacques Martin repeated one of his favourite maxims: the results of hockey games often come down to goaltending and special teams.

Carey Price had a quiet night against the Flyers' 15 shots, but the Canadiens went 1-for-3 on the PP and killed four penalties.

Twenty-four hours later, Jaro Halak – a somewhat surprising starter – made 45 saves to backstop brilliant work by the Canadiens' special teams.

And when the dust settled, the Canadiens found themselves in eighth place.

They have 15Ws this injury-wracked season – as many as Boston and Ottawa, only one fewer than Buffalo.

Amazing!

The undermanned Canadiens make it three in a row.

Jaro Halak: 45 saves.

The PK: 7-for-7

The PP: two goals.

Suddenly, the centennial boys are hot.

The Montreal Canadiens (5-5-0) are currently sitting in the 9th spot in the Eastern Conference. In the Northeast Division the Habs are third, behind a strong Buffalo squad and the competitive Senators.

We all know where the Leafs are in the standings.

The Habs have picked up their play but their stats still show a low-level team. Montreal scores an average of 2.60 goals/game but allows 3.00. Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak have a combined 0.892 SP which isn’t the worst in the league, but is far from the top. The boys have been short-handed 37 times (20th-NHL), which is much better than the league leading Hurricanes (58), but don’t have the best penalty-kill (78.4%). The powerplay is currently striking at 17.1%, but has definitely been improving over the last couple of games (Marc-Andre Bergeron is on pace for 50 PP goals).

A somewhat truncated edition, because I'm too tired and bummed out to write very much.

Let's repeat the comforting nostrums we heard last night and will be hearing over the next couple of says:

There are 75 games left in the regular season. It's too early to panic.

There are lot of new players, and it will take time for chemistry to develop. It's important for the Canadiens and their fans to remain patient and positive.

Each successive loss, however, makes the mantras ring a bit more hollow.

It is too early to panic. But given the degree of parity in the NHL, a team that tumbles to the bottom of the standings in October has a long, hard climb back into playoff contention.

What makes it difficult to control mounting dread is the difficulty of perceiving the positive indicators that Jacques Martin keeps talking about.

The most encouraging sign: the players ARE trying. With the exception of the Vancouver debacle, most of them are giving their best in every game.

For me, that's the scary part about the way the Canadiens have begun their season: they are doing their best ... and their best might not be good enough.

And Alex Kovalev WOULD score the insurance goal ...

Ah, only a pre-season game.

But still ...

Much talk, post-game, about preparation ... and lack of same.

One team was ready. The other wasn't.

The Canadiens' power play was 1-for-6, Ottawa's 2-for-5.

Alex Kovalev opened the scoring and Mike Fisher, skating like the wind all night, bagged a hat trick.

Carey Price has had better nights: 16 shots, four went in.

Several players – notably Maxim Lapierre – were invisible.

When Ryan White is the player the coach singles out for praise ...

On to Quebec City for a date with the team that defeated the Canadiens in the last game that meant anything.

AUDIO: Jacques Martin  Mike Cammalleri  Carey Price  Gregory Stewart

Just a few quick hits because I have to be up at the crack of dawn.

Patrick V. Hickey and I are going on a road trip for the games in Ottawa and Quebec City, and Hick wants to get to Scotiabank Place for the Senators' 10:30 morning skate so he can have a word with Kovy.

Sadly, l'Artiste couldbn't be with us at the Bell Centre tonight.

Were he in the lineup, Kovalev could have fought Eric Neilson.

Everyone else did.

Unlike my friend and colleague David Stubbs, I'm not into hockey memorabilia.

That said, one of my treasured keepsakes is a hockey page from Sport Express, a Russian publication "for those who speak the language of sport."

Damir Khayretdinov, Sport Express's man in Montreal, speaks English. Early this season, we had a chat in the Bell Centre pressbox.

The subject was Andrei Markov.

I told Khayretdinov what any reasonably observant Montreal Canadiens fan could have told him: Markov is the most valuable player on the team.

The upshot was I got quoted in his feature on Markov. The Sport Express headline read, in Russian:

Boone: Canadiens can't win without Markov

Big thrill for me, seeing my name in a newspaper published in the country where my ancestors may have been chased out of their shtetls by Andrei Markov's ancestors.

Fortunately for the Canadiens, my theory was never tested.

Until last night.

Bob Gainey would not confirm reports that Mathieu Schneidfer is lost for the season and Andrei Markov for three weeks.

The world knows more about North Korea's rocket program than it does about Montreal canadiens' injuriies.

Good thing no one bets on this wacky sport. 

Lazte rumour" Mathieu Schneider on the flight to New York.

I'd prefer it were Markov, but still ...

Win at MSG clinches a playoff spot. 

Well, how do you like the Bob Gainey era so far?

Since Guy Carbonneau was fired, your Montreal Canadiens have beaten Edmonton in overtime, lost to the Islanders in OT, lost to New Jersey, lost to the Rangers in a shootout and lost to Ottawa.

That's four points in the five games since Gainey took the reins.

Using my souvenir bleu-blanc-rouge centennial calculator, I project that performance to 66 points in an 82-game season.

Not a single team in the NHL finished with fewer than 70 points last season.

In their 66 games under Carbo, the Canadiens were on pace for 96 points.

As the Living Legend of Sports Journalism might, and doubtless will, ask in The Red Line tomorrow, what in thunderation is going on here?

But that object in the rear view mirror is the Florida Panthers.

Jaroslav Halak has become the number one goaltender.

He'll have to save the bacon. 

On a celebratory Saturday night in Montreal – and it's a while since we've had one of those – save a couple Stolichnaya toasts for that OTHER Russian superstar.

I thought Andrei Markov played an astounding 28:28 of brilliant hockey today.

He sees the ice. He doesn't panic. He invariably makes the correct play.

And bolstered by the arrival of Mathieu Schneider, Markov has become a creative, freewheeling force on a revitalized power play.

Since Schneider was acquired from Atlanta, the PP has cashed seven of 12 opportunities.

That's sick – as opposed to sickly, which the power play has been for most of the season. And it begs the question: Why wasn't something done earlier?

Among other things, a viable threat at the right point opens up more ice for that other Russian guy who played a pretty good game today.

He has risen.

Alex Kovalev: a goal, two assists, stellar work on the PK and First Star of the game.

Maybe, as Guy Carbonneau suggested, everyone should have three days off. 

 

One good period.

One great period.

One lousy period.

One emerging star.

Two valuable points.

The Canadiens should have won easily. They would have were it not for some great saves by Brian Elliott.

Shootouts, however, are not Elliott's forte.

Jaroslav Halak stopped Daniel "No Longer F." Alfredsson.

And Maxim "Guy Lafleur" Lapierre put it in the W column.

Disastrous third period sees Ottawa score three times o seven shots to erase the Canadiens' lead.

OT produced some thrills, and now the shootout: 

Spezza: Miss 

Kovalev: EASY goal

Alfredsson: Save

Lapierre (?): GOAL!!!!!

Unreal!

Carbo is a genius 

 

Maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel.

We'll find out tomorrow whether it's an oncoming train.

Boston will be a sterner chalenge than Ottawa was last night, when Alex Tanguay's shootout goal propelled your Montreal Canadiens to victory in the Futility Bowl.

But a W is a W. The Canadiens had two of them on their three-game road trip this week ... albeit against the Senators and St. Louis, two teams that would be facing relegation if the NHL worked like the English Premier League.

Guy Carbonneau was all smiles in his post-game press conference.

As they pointed out on L'Antichambre, however, the coach looked more relieved than happy.

Two struggling teams, both terrified of losing, play an odd hockey game that goes to a shootout, preceded by scraping and a extra Zamboni run

Spezza: Goal! Great shot 

Kovalev: Misses on backhand

Alfredsson: Save 

Markov: Goal on backhand

Ruutu: AMAZING glove save!

Koivu: Save, on another backhand

Vermette: Miss

Tanguay: GOAL!!! Bacxkhand

 What a team. Four of six points on the road ... sucking all the way! 

 

 

Guy Carbonneau assigned high grades to his team after their 4-0 conquest of Ottawa in a game the Canadiens had to win to avoid a city-wide nervous breakdown.

"We worked hard for two days and got results," Carbo said of himself, the coaching staff and the players. "It was very satisfying.

"That was the best 60 minutes we've played this year and probably the last two years.

"This team always responds well to tough times. They didn't disappoint me tonight."

Audio:

• Carbo

• Hat Trick guy Christopher Higgins

• The trenchant analysis of Josh Gorges

• Mr. Cool, Carey Price

• Max Lapierre on Ruutu's atempt to kill him

... that the screaming gladiator on TV is one of my acid flashbacks.

That dipstick didn't REALLY walk up from the Senators' room onto centre ice.

What a pathetic, jive -ass franchise.

Worse than Toronto.

And now that cop is going to sing.

Go Penguins! 

Oct. 8, 1956: Don Larsen pitches a perfect game at Yankee Stadium.

April 1, 2008: Montreal Canadiens play a perfect game at Scotiabank Place.

That's what Alex Kovalev called it. And, as has been the case throughout this amazing season, Kovy is right.

With Saku Koivu, Mike Komisarek and Francis Bouillon out of the lineup, Canadiens played a flawless road game in which everyone contributed. After sub-par performances in Buffalo and Toronto, the team kicked butt and took no prisoners in Ottawa.

Given the circumstances – Canadiens' injuries, Senators desperately needing a win – it was a more impressive W than the 7-5 game at the Bell Centre.

The last time Canadiens won a division title, it was called the Adams Division.

It's somehow fitting that in the game that sewed up the Northeast Division, Guy Carbonneau buttressed his Adams Award credentials.

Carbo had his guys ready last night. He and his assistants drew up a game plan – focused on containment of Ottawa's top line and relentless pressure in the Senators' end – that was executed to perfection.

When a guy like Mathieu Dandenault comes out of the pressbox to score a goal and play his butt off, you have to credit the motivational skills of his coach.

When Ryan O'Byrne is killing penalties late in the game, you have to admire Carbo's ability to develop the confidence of young players.

And when a team that most experts picked to finish up the track has 100 points with two games to play ... well, memo to the Adams engraver: there are two Ns in "Carbonneau."

Canadiens' Alex Kovalev backhands his first-period, game-winning goal over Senators' Martin Gerber.
Chris Wattie, Reuters

Standings | Lineups | AP Preview | How They Match Up | Game Photos | Game Summary | Event Summary | Boxscore | Gazette Game Story | Boone

Has it been awhile since the Canadiens last won a division championship? Not to put too fine a point on it, but 16 years ago, Carey Price and Guillaume Latendresse hadn’t yet started the first grade.

Not that anyone is counting tonight. The Canadiens’ two 20-year-olds have moved to the head of the class along with a very happy group of teammates, the Habs clinching the Northeast Division title with a 3-0 victory in Kanata over the very vulnerable Ottawa Senators.

Alex Kovalev, with his 35th of the year, Mathieu Dandenault, with his ninth, and Andrei Kostitsyn, with his 26th, scored Montreal’s goals. Goalie Carey Price earned his third shutout of the season, making 32 saves. His glove grab in the final seconds was one for the books.

The last time Canadiens won a division title, Carey Price was 4 years old.

That was in 1991-'92. The division was called the Adams.

Price is older now. He is the Number One goaltender of a team that has won 45 games and amassed 100 points this season – with two games to play.

3-0 over the Stanley Cup finalists.

In Ottawa.

Playing without Saku Koivu, Mike Komisarek and Francis Bouillon, Canadiens played a textbook road game and clinched a Top Two seeding for the playoffs.

A little reading to prepare you for tonight's game in Ottawa:

• Red Fisher on the stern stuff of which Saku Koivu is made;
• Dave Stubbs on the mood in the Canadiens dressing room, and Carbo's plea to the media;
• Pat Hickey on the Senators, and on the test ahead for the Habs' depth;
• Herb Zurkowsky on a bad break, Steve Bégin and playing with pain.
• Mike Boone: Anyone else nervous?
• Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail on something amiss in Ottawa
• Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen on the Senators' unlikely playoff push

Let's accentuate the positive:

• Canadiens played probably their best first period of the season. And the second wasn't too shabby either.

• They scored seven goals against a Stanley Cup finalist that had won five of six previous meetings.

• Canadiens are first in the Eastern Conference, first in the Northeast Division and first Eastern team to clinch a playoff berth.

• The scoresheet included 14 home-team names.

• Through 40 minutes, Jason F. Spezza, Daniel F. Alfredsson and Dany F. Heatley were scoreless, had four shots and were each minus-2.

• Ottawa's comeback pre-empted a Brian McGrattan/Chris Neil goon show. 

So pop in the CD of Happy Days Are Here Again, hit Repeat and just keep smiling until the playoffs.